Understanding & avoiding the micromanagement trap

Have you ever been on an emergency call where you just started barking out orders, and in response, your firefighters looked at you like you were a complete idiot? If you answered yes, congratulations! You probably just told some perfectly competent, highly trained and motivated personnel how to do their job. If you feel the need to tell your crew exactly how to do the job they’re paid to do, you’re probably not doing yours. In fact, you may not even know what your job is.

Why do supervisors insist on micromanaging their employees? In my opinion, supervisors employ this poor tactic either because they don’t have confidence in their crew or they’re insecure about their own abilities.

A Question of Style
A chief officer once told me, “Some people need to be micromanaged.” I didn’t know how to react to this comment, so I didn’t say anything. But the more I learned about micromanagement, the more I disagreed with this statement. If someone must be painstakingly instructed on how to perform a task—micromanaged—that’s a training issue. And the last time I checked, training issues can and should be handled by company officers.

If you can’t train someone to successfully perform a task they are paid to do, a few things may be going on: The trainee is either incompetent and shouldn’t be doing the job, which is rare, or you might not be the right person to train them. In the fire service, I have found most people are very competent, but are sometimes poorly trained in a particular area.

Getting these people up to speed is usually an easy task. On the other hand, if you and your department have tried everything within your power to train someone and it just doesn’t work, you have no choice but to get rid of them. If you don’t, your department may spend the next 30 years micromanaging an incompetent employee.

If a trainee is having difficulty, you must determine the problem, which could be you. Even though everyone thinks their teaching technique is the best, there are many different ways to teach firefighting tactics. When I was a training captain in charge of probationary instruction, if a probationary firefighter didn’t meet the department standards on one of their tests, I would meet with them and their captain to evaluate what went wrong. During a few of these meetings, I realized that the probationary employee and the captain simply spoke different languages. In other words, the captain’s teaching style didn’t match very well with the employee’s learning style, which wasn’t the captain’s or the employee’s fault. They just had different ways of teaching and learning.

I remember beating my head against a wall a few times while attempting to teach hoselays to some probationary employees and getting blank stares in return. My long-time engine partner, Ryan Lewis, often came to the rescue. Ryan would explain and/or demonstrate the exact same thing I just did, but in a way that made the probies suddenly perform the evolution perfectly. After checking my bruised ego, I realized that everyone learns differently.  

If one of your employees isn’t catching on to something you’re trying to teach them, don’t get frustrated and fall into the micromanaging trap. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have the teaching market cornered. Check your ego at the door, and ask someone to step in and give you a hand. You may find you have an extremely capable employee who simply learns in a way that doesn’t match your teaching style. Over the years, I’ve discovered that watching other officers’ teaching techniques has improved my own techniques, which ultimately helps the personnel we instruct.
 
The M Word
I don’t know about you, but I hate making mistakes and seeing mistakes made. I used to beat myself up if I messed up on a call or in a training situation. Fortunately for me, I make mistakes often, so I had to stop my sniveling and learn from those situations; as a result, I’ve realized that making mistakes can be a healthy way of learning. Here’s one example: We were at a really fun water salvage call the other day while working on Truck 131. When we got to the scene, we saw a waterfall pouring out of the building. The engine company managed to shut off the 5" water main that broke inside the building, but a huge lake was left inside. To get rid of the lake, I asked one firefighter to get a circular saw and cut a steel roll-up door that was holding back the 18" wall of water. The firefighter proceeded to cut the door, but with a lot of trouble; the saw kept jamming on the steel. The senior firefighter on scene asked me if we should tell him to cut it the other, correct, direction. With a little smile on my face, I said, “No, let him finish.”

When I had a chance to speak privately with the firefighter, I asked him if he had had some problems with the saw. He said he did and couldn’t understand why the saw kept binding up. I told him to cut in the other direction next time and things will go much smoother. He looked at me like, why didn’t you tell me that before I got worked over by a saw? “Sometimes it’s better to learn the hard way, so you don’t forget the lesson when it really counts,” I told him.

Unfortunately, people are inherently afraid of making mistakes, which can lead to a fear of making decisions. Have you ever known a timid or insecure firefighter? Often, their behavior stems from a supervisor who has micromanaged them. These firefighters aren’t given the opportunity to make mistakes because their captain supervises them to the point of perceived perfection.

So what’s wrong with perceived perfection? When people are forced to follow strict direction, they lose interest in their job because they don’t have to think. If someone is given a task to complete, and is told exactly how to complete that task, they just go through the motions; they don’t have to figure anything out for themselves.

Unfortunately, the officer doing the micromanaging often doesn’t realize what they are doing. The result: The officer actually de-motivates their employees.

Several studies have tried to identify what employees consider important about their jobs. In “Reinventing the Corporation,” authors John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene note one study that asked people which job factors were the most important to them. The top six were:
• Work with people who treat me with respect;
• Interesting work;
• Recognition for good work;
• Chance to develop skills;
• Working for people who listen if I have ideas about how to do things better; and
• A chance to think for myself rather than just carry out instructions.

Notice the last three points specify the desire to learn and improve. If people feel this strongly about these factors, do you think they appreciate being over-supervised and not allowed to make mistakes?

If you don’t allow your employees some flexibility when performing tasks, they will never make their own mistakes or learn how to think on their own. The great thing about providing latitude and flexibility: oftentimes, the employees end up teaching you something new. In my opinion, firefighters work their hardest when they are led by a captain who allows input and provides opportunities for creative problem solving.

Do You Need a Red Helmet?
When a supervisor keeps employees under their thumb, it’s usually because the supervisor lacks experience or has insecurities about their own skills. The first sign of insecurity: when a person feels they must let you know they are in charge.

A few years ago, my department had a push to get traditional black fire helmets for everyone; only the chief officers would have worn helmets of a different color. If you were a captain, you would have worn red reflective tape instead of yellow to indicate your rank. Some captains strongly opposed this idea; they wanted red helmets like the ones we currently wear. When I asked one captain why he wanted a red helmet instead of red tape, he replied, “Some people won’t know I’m a captain if I don’t have a red helmet.” I thought, if you need a red helmet to let everyone know you’re a captain, maybe you shouldn’t be one.

Most supervisors who fall into this trap because of a lack of experience eventually mature, gain confidence and realize it is poor management style. I must admit I am not without fault in this area. I have found myself letting people know I’m in charge in one way or another on a couple of occasions, and the outcome has been consistently poor.

Let me outline how this usually goes:
• Step 1: I am given a job that I have little or no experience in handling.
• Step 2: I find someone who can help me.
• Step 3: I try to act like I’m in charge in some way by questioning everything and failing to trust the person helping me. (This accentuates the fact that I have no clue what I’m doing.)
• Step 4: I get the project thrown back in my lap because I have ticked everyone off.
• Step 5: I realize I can’t do the project by myself and beg for forgiveness.

When it comes to getting things done, if I’m tasked with something that I can delegate, I do so. I meet with the group or person I am trusting to assist with the task and outline the objectives, parameters, resources and desired outcome. I ask them if they need any direction or help, then I get out of their way so they can do the job I’ve asked them to do.

And if I can’t get out of the way, I do the job myself. If you can’t trust someone to complete a task, don’t give it to them. The bottom line: You expend more time and effort micromanaging someone than if you simply handled it all by your lonesome.

Conclusion
It is nearly impossible to be an expert in every aspect of our job. In the fire service, we must trust other members to help us complete tasks in order to be successful. When we empower someone to do a job, it is crucial to allow for mistakes and flexibility in their ability to complete the task. One of the most important aspects of building high morale within your crew is to encourage participation. Your people will not want to participate if you don’t allow them to contribute and take some ownership of the outcome. Ask yourself one simple question: Do I like to be micromanaged? No? Then don’t do it to other people.

Ray Gayk is a company officer with the Ontario (Calif.) Fire Department (OFD). Gayk is a 16-year veteran of the fire service who has been actively involved with the OFD’s development of engineer and captain mentor programs. Gayk has also been a training officer and currently works on Truck 131 in downtown Ontario.